It’s hard to convert others with the Gospel if it hasn’t changed you! Obeying the Gospel rests upon Bible-derived faith (Romans 10:17), which acknowledges that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God (John 8:24). Bible faith must be demonstrated—acted out in one’s life (Hebrews 11; James 2:14–26). Bible faith—not the casual mental assent that many people pledge—leads honest hearts to repent of sin in their lives (Romans 3:10, 23; Acts 2:38), conforming to the Word of God (Romans 12:1–2). Subsequently, the soul seeking salvation happily acknowledges his faith in Jesus Christ as Redeemer (Romans 10:9–10). Only then may a person be baptized for the remission of sins as he imitates the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord (Romans 6:3–5). Next comes the lifelong pursuit of spiritual maturity (Hebrews 5:12–14; 1 Peter 2:2) and service to our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6:7). The faithfulness of a child of God must persevere even if so doing results in one’s death (Matthew 10:28; Revelation 2:10).

However, it’s hard to convert others with the Gospel if it hasn’t changed you. Whomever fails to resort to God’s Word—God’s operator’s manual for humanity—by which to order his or her life cannot expect others to use God’s Word to transform their lives. Lacking stable Bible faith due to a lack of Bible study (2 Timothy 2:15), that person is ill prepared to encourage others to bring their lives into compliance with Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16–17). If it’s obvious that one has not repented of all of his sins, non-Christians will not repent of pet sins in their lives. If we are embarrassed to acknowledge publicly our Christianity, the Christ and His church, we will be unable to successfully persuade non-Christians of the importance of Christianity, the Christ and His church. If we place little significance on our respective baptisms, candidates for conversion will not place the proper emphasis on baptism either. If we are not maturing from babes in Christ to fruitful and productive members of the body of Christ, neither will we be able to influence others effectively to pursue spiritual maturity in their lives. If we do not regularly attend worship with fellow Christians, neither Christians nor non-Christians will be encouraged to take worship seriously as well as to be a part of the worship assembly (Hebrews 10:25).

Truly, it’s hard to convert others with the Gospel if it hasn’t changed you! “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV).